ˈsuffocating, ppl. a.
[-ing2.]
1. That causes suffocation; stifling.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 389 If there be Cords, or Kniues, Poyson, or Fire, or suffocating streames, Ile not indure it. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 416 The hot winds blowing..with such a suffocating heat. 1764 Harmer Observ. i. §16. 39 These hot winds are not deadly at Aleppo... They are very incommoding and suffocating in Barbary and Egypt too. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 172 The dense and suffocating odour of muriatic acid. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam i. xiii. 3 Would the Snake Relax his suffocating grasp. 1829 Lytton Disowned lxxxiv, Throwing, as it were, in that exclamation, a whole weight of suffocating emotion from his chest. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xviii. 133 The dead suffocating warmth of the interior of an oven. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxii. 391 The hills were waterless, the weather suffocating. |
| fig. 1875 Helps Soc. Press. viii. 101, I hope he told you of the suffocating interest I take in your present subject. |
† b. suffocating damp = choke-damp. So
suffocating shaft.
Obs.| 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 227 One is called the Suffocating, the other the Fulminating Damp. 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 201 If faggots on fire..be thrown into a suffocating Shaft, it will rarify the bad air. |
2. Accompanied by suffocation.
| 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. v. 184 That uneasy and suffocating sensation. 1818–20 E. Thompson Nosologia (ed. 3) 222 Convulsive suffocating cough. 1838 Thackeray Yellowpl. Corr. iv. (1887) 26 She gev a suffycating shreek. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 10 Sept. 6/2 A hoarse, suffocating sound. |
3. That undergoes suffocation.
rare.
| 1869 Daily News 2 July, The mute agonies of the suffocating lobster before he is boiled alive in a pot. |
4. as
adv. = suffocatingly.
rare.
| 1737 Whiston Josephus, Hist. iii. ix. §1 It was suffocating hot. |
Hence
ˈsuffocatingly adv., so as to cause suffocation.
| 1822 Blackw. Mag. XII. 434, I never felt more suffocatingly hot. 1854 Dickens Hard T. ii. iv, The..suffocatingly close Hall. 1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate vi, Her heart suddenly waking from its torpor to beat wildly, suffocatingly. |